Nonequilibrium dynamics of parametrically excited cold atoms via magnetic field-gradient modulation

We propose that the driven cold atomic system whose trap potential is periodically perturbed via parametric modulation of the magnetic field-gradien is a novel system to investigate the complex dynamics in nonlinear dynamical systems. We calculate the atomic trajectories and basins of attraction by varying the modulation amplitude and the modulation frequency. The calculation results show parametric resonance similar to those in Kim et. al.'s work [Opt. Commun. 236 (2004) 349] on cold atoms under parametric modulation of trap laser intensities in the case of small modulation amplitude or low modulation frequency. As the modulation amplitude or the modulation frequency is increased, the nonlinear effects are enhanced so that the dynamics of the system shows a wide variety of nonlinear behaviors, such as period doubling and chaos. We experimentally demonstrate the parametric resonance when the magnetic field gradient is parametrically modulated, which evidences the realization of the proposed system. We expect that this system is useful for understanding the stochastic phenomena occurring between complex basins of attraction, such as fluctuation induced transitions across the complex basin boundaries. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.